jebsblog

“It’s always nice to learn something new…”

Seems I have been saying that a lot lately.

The latest is related to how to use WordPress. I had been making all of my posts “stick” to the home page by checking off “Stick this post to the front page” under the “Visibility” section in the Publish action box. I think I did this because when I first started using WordPress, the order of the posts were not correct (older posts were showing first).

In any case, it turns out the “sticky” button was causing more problems in that it was showing all of my posts on the home page despite the fact that I had the settings telling WordPress to only show the last five posts. Removing the “sticky” switch on all of my posts fixed this.

So the new thing I learned today…”Sticky buttons and sticky posts, make a mess!”

One has to wonder after reading these articles from yesterday’s ZDNet…

In their article, Report: Malicious PDF files comprised 80% of all exploits for 2009, ZDNet reports:

A newly released report shows that based on more than a trillion Web requests processed in 2009, the use of malicious PDF files exploiting flaws in Adobe Reader/Adobe Acrobat not only outpaced the use of Flash exploits, but also, grew to 80% of all exploits the company encountered throughout the year.

The other blog, Adobe plugs more gaping holes in PDF Reader, ZDNet reports that Adobe has released a new patch for the Adobe Reader yesterday.

This morning, both of my Windows XP machines lit up with an announcement that there was a new version of Flash Player available and urged me to install. I did despite the fact that I manually updated them all last week when the first stories appeared that the patch was released.

Perhaps the scariest conclusion noted in the ZDNet article about report from ScanSafe was that:

Therefore, the increasing use of malicious PDFs can also be interpreted as the direct result of the millions of users using outdated and exploitable Adobe products (emphasis mine), with the only preference a malicious attacker could have in this case remaining the incentive based on the 99% penetration of Adobe Flash on Internet-enabled PCs.

I guess the adage, “you have no one to blame but yourself” comes to mind, but clearly, people have come to expect that the people who make the stuff that they run on their computers ensure that their stuff is safe.

So the message here folks is: when you get a notice that there is a new version of your software available, drop everything and install it.

That was my first thought when I read on the Apple site that their new “mouse” that came with the latest iMac was to be called the “Magic Mouse.”

My mind works that way. Give me a few words, and a song title or lyrics pop into my brain and usually out my mouth.

“Magic Mouse, build me a hundred….I want it, I want it, I want it…”

I know…I am showing my age.

In any case, the Apple Magic Mouse caught my attention and I did indeed secretly want to get my hands on one. It’s shape, color and “trackpad” features intrigued me. So, when I was in fact in need of another mouse – this for my new MacBookPro (MBP), my AppleFanBoi friend suggested I get on.

Seventy dollars later, it was ordered and within a week the box arrived.

I must confess that I have also been intrigued by Apple’s packaging department. They don’t do anything without panache. It took me a week to figure out what that flat black thing wrapped in plastic was in the MCP box. Who would have guessed they would supply you with a silk-like “dust cloth” to keep your screen clean. Don’t get me started with Apples use of all of that unique thin plastic wrap.

So, after what seemed like an inordinate amount of time to get the MBP’s Bluetooth to discover the mouse – or vice versa – the device came alive.

Sadly, my first discovery was that the Magic Mouse is designed for people who have hands the size of a … mouse. It is tiny, and flat. It immediately reminded me of the hockey puck that came with the original iMacs back in the mid 90′s. I had thought that Apple had learned its lesson by now. The Magic Mouse does NOT fit my paw.

The second big disappointment is: unless you are using your Magic Mouse on a mouse pad, the device does not slide very easily, and because the bottom is made of metal – unlike the el Cheapo plastic ones I have all over the house – it makes a considerable amount of noise when it “scrapes” along on the top of my desk.

The positives should also be mentioned: the touchpad-like scrolling function is flawless, very accurate and easy on the hand. Unlike a standard scroll wheel, there is no tension in the motion and you can control the cursor with much more accuracy than with a wheel, especially a wheel with a gear in it that gives the mouse that “ratchet” feel.

Second positive: the zoom feature. While holding the Control button, the scroll function activates the screen zoom. I don’t use it much, but it is nice to have.

But the small size of the Magic Mouse may be the deal breaker for me. We’ll play with it for a while longer and see.

The Magic Mouse does not support all of the great features that are found in the MBP trackpad and that was a big mistake on Apple’s part. It seems to me they could have added the three- and four-finger actions; maybe we’ll see those in the next version.

So, if you have seventy good ones burning a hole in your pocket and own a late model Apple computer, you’ll probably want one of these. If not, I’ll sell you mine – cheap.

I’ve gotten tired of my Joomla! template for jebswebs.com and had contemplated getting a new one. I’m in the market because one of my clients needs a new one, but I decided to see if there was a way to tweak this one. The current template is called Weblogic from JoomlaShack, and while I was looking over the JS site, I realized that there were a number of ways I could tweak Weblogic to make it look – almost – new.

The easiest thing to do was to simply change the font-family style element from Georgian/serif to a san-serif. That has made a tremendous difference. Let that be a lesson to you; a simple font change can make your whole site look completely different.

There are still some font elements I don’t like, but I gotta search out the code to find where the CSS for that particular code is hiding. Always fun trying to crack someone else’s code.

Next, I need to work on getting/creating some new graphics for the site. With my new HP Pavilion Elite, crunching graphics is a breeze. So, stay tuned.

It may not be spring (look at the photos I just posted of the New Years Storm of 2010), but it is the New Year and change is in the air.

~j

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Image licensed by Creative Commons

This is primarily intended for my clients who are using WordPress on the websites….you know who you are, right? Ahem…

Anyway, three exciting changes found in the new version of WordPress are “the Trash Can,”  “image editing” and “video embedding.”

The Trash Can now adds a step between removing a blog entry or page and permanently deleting. When you “delete” something in WordPress 2.9 it automatically goes into a trash can (just like in Windows or Mac OS). You can go to the Trash Can tab and permanently delete the items then, or simply wait and WordPress will automatically delete the item permanently in 30 days.

An even more exciting addition to WordPress 2.9 are new image editing tools that will pop up when you insert an image into a post or page. The editing tool features a cropping tool as well as some basic flipping and spinning features.

The third new feature may come in handy for some clients and I will be trying this one out myself. This has to do with embedding video clips. In the past, to embed a video like a YouTube clip, you had to grab the embedding code from YouTube, then open a page or post and click on the HTML version of the editor, then find the location where you wanted your video clip to appear, and then paste the code. It wasn’t always a smooth process. Well, apparently – and I haven’t tried this yet – all you have to do now is grab the embedding code and place it where you want the clip to appear right on your page, then simply paste the code right into the page (using the standard Visual editor) and voila! The video will magically appear…or so I believe. I’ll check that one and get back to you.

To “embed” a video in either a page or a post on WordPress, you actually have to use the URL link code NOT the Embed code. Your code with be the one with the “http://….”  NOT the one with the “<object width=…>” This might be a little confusing. But it works – see the embedded video at the bottom of this post.

To learn more about these new features, go to the Official WordPress blog where there is a short video explaining and demonstrating these new features.

Here is the sample of one of my You Tube videos